Herbig-Haro

"Herbig-Haro" is a short story by Harry Turtledove, published under his pen name Eric Iverson. It was originally published in Analog, October, 1984, and reprinted in Imperial Stars I: The Stars at War, edited by Jerry Pournelle & John F. Carr, Baen 1986. While set in the same universe as "The Road Not Taken", it has not been reprinted.

After the failed Roxolan invasion, Earth gained knowledge of hyperdrive and contragrav. With other technology far in advance of other species, humanity quickly expanded to other stars conquering the native populations and forming an empire called the Terran Confederacy. However, this expansion was too quick and too extensive. It became impossible to administer and so collapsed.

Some 1200 years after the first contact with an alien species, a few human colonies, including Loki, had regained most of the technological knowledge of the Terran Confederacy, both by rediscovery and by scavenging ruins. The Loki Salvage Service was created to continue this work and c.a. AD 3240 it encountered an alien species on the other side of the Orion Nebula which had also taken "the road less traveled".